F15Rules

2 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Glad you've managed to get out after your illness Dave. You can't beat a trawl around Orion for a return session. 

 

Thanks Stardaze, much appreciated! 

Dave

1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

Sorry to hear you have been ill Dave hope you are on the mend now, I too have had some problems. Lovely clear night here last night unfortunately I still could not get out supposed to be clear tonight and I too was going to spend an hour on Orion but that is looking unlikely now.

It is great to read peoples reports when I am stuck in chomping at the bit to get out. 

Orion has some great objects to look at not least M42 and the Trapezium.

Thanks Paul, really appreciate that. 

I know you've got your own health challenges, and I really hope you can get out with your fine 5" refractor very soon..

Dave

8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Question, you mentioned three components in Sigma Orionis, but it’s the fourth faint one which can be a challenge, at least on smaller scopes. Must be trivial in Trinity so perhaps you meant the three fainter stars other than the main bright ones?

Hi Stu,

My bad, I meant Iota Orionis, not Sigma!!🥴😂..

Sometimes called "Hatsya", Iota is a triple with companions of 7th and 11th Magnitude directly south of M42...but then you know that!😂😂

Sorry for the error, it's dangerous to work from memory after a fairly long layoff!!

Sigma will be on my list for the next session, I'll see if I can see all 4 components, thanks for the correction👍🤭.

Dave

25 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Sounds like a proper session Dave. Good to hear you got back at the eyepiece of Trinity👍👍. 
John 

Thanks John..I do love the Tak, for such a large (but lightweight, only 7.5kg) tube, it's so easy to handle, and cools down remarkably quickly..much as a Tak triplet could appeal, I really think that for visual use and practicality the Fluorite doublets are perfect for my needs..

Dave

31 minutes ago, Saganite said:

A nice session Dave and I found pretty much the same as yourself with those targets, but I was happy last night just Moongazing...

The seeing was pretty good until a bit later , around 9.30pm, and the transparency got worse. By midnight I almost could not see Orion's belt because of mist/ground fog. Did you find that ?

The forecast around here for this evening is clear all the way through to 3 am Thursday morning, so I hope it will be the same for you.

I expect I will drag another scope out.....

Good stuff Steve👍. 

I actually found the sky improving as the session went on, no fog or mist etc..I didn't stay out past c10pm though. I do suspect it stayed clear for a good while longer, as I got up c 2am for a call of nature and Capella was very bright through our en suite Velux window!!😂

Dave

32 minutes ago, SuburbanMak said:

Enjoyed reading this Dave, especially to hear that you are well & back out there!  Looking forward to working through targets from my new Cambridge Double Star Anthology around Orion this week,  so you are providing the inspiration on a couple of levels...  

Thanks for your kind remarks, Mark. 

I do love Orion..I know it's such an "obvious" favourite, but there is so much to see, and I never tire of it..

Enjoy your Cambridge Double Star Atlas..I picked up mine for a look yesterday, but to be honest I just was content just to check out the obvious "celestial lollipops"😂..it's been such a while since I observed much of anything!

Dave

Having been quite ill over Christmas and New Year with flu like virus (not Covid), it's been pretty frustrating to have had 6 clear nights since New Year's day (!!) before tonight, and not been able to get out for fear of prolonging illness (which has also affected my wife).

But after a very dank, dull day today, the skies cleared tonight, and it also felt milder than it has for some time. So I wrapped up well and got out Trinity the Tak FS128.

I only planned about an hour or so session, so I spent most of the time on Orion, with views of the following:

I used a variety of EPs, all in my Astro Tech 2" dielectric mirror diagonal: Axiom 31mm, 23mm, Nagler T2 12mm, and Morpheus 17.5mm and 9mm. The higher powers all gave great, dark backgrounds, but the seeing didn't  support much over c 120x during the first half of the session.

Firstly, Cyclops session, objects viewed:M42, Sigma Orionis, The Belt trio, Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka, and Rigel, Pleiades..and a quick peek at the moon.

M42 was wonderful in the Celestron Axiom LX 23mm..this large, beautifully made 82 degree eyepiece is proving a worthy successor to my much loved and missed Vixen LVW 22mm..to see a great view of M42's Batwings and Fishes Mouth, and the  Sigma Orionis triple in one field with room to spare was delightful. Although transparency was good, seeing was fairly poor especially to begin with..the Trapezium was well seen, but no sign of E&F components..and the waxing  Moon was very bright too.

Rigel at first look was disappointing..very reluctant to focus down to a fine point, and no sign of its 7th mag companion. Sigma did split readily and the third component was easily seen, but it's an easy object normally anyway.

For the latter 30mins or so I got out the binoviewer and (new to me) Baader BBHS Zeiss T2 prism..this seemed to really improve things in terms of sharpness and light scatter..I used a pair of Kson 16.8mm orthos with 50 deg FOV, rather like the BCOs, and am very impressed with them.

Highlights of the short binoviewing session were:.

Rigel split with ease and very cleanly at an estimated 173x..such a difference to the Cyclops view just 30 minutes earlier!

Mintaka and Alnitak also well split (Mintaka easy as a wide optical double)..Alnitak a lovely sight at a c 2.5" close pairing.

I think the seeing definitely improved over the session, but the improvement with the binoviewer vs Cyclops must, I think, have been partly at least due to the effect of the Baader Zeiss BBHS T2 prism.. I'm going to enjoy using this..it has 35mm clear aperture, and as most of my 2" EPs have a 36mm field stop or less, it should work well with them..I've ordered a Baader 2" to T2 clicklock to facilitate this.

All in all, such an enjoyable  first proper session of 2022, and so good to be out with the scope again!😊

Thanks for reading 😊

Dave

Welcome back, Buqibu👍..and a Happy New Year to you too.

Where to begin??

Well, depends a bit on what scope you have, but Auriga has plenty of interesting objects, as do Gemini and Cassiopeia..

Let us know about your scope location ((Northern or Southern Hemisphere), and I'm sure you'll get helpful suggestions..

Dave

22 minutes ago, Paz said:

I resolved to do this a few years ago but didn't keep it up for long, the weather was unrelentingly either completely cloudy or any observing involved cloud dodging so I stopped noting the weather.

I can plan my observing quite confidently  on the assumption that on any given day it will probably be cloudy!

I totally get that Chris..

I'm going to try to stay the course for this year, as I do want to know, based on data, not (increasingly  unreliable!) memory, what were the facts for the year in terms of available observing opportunities, and how many of those available opportunities I actually exploited..

I also hope that the fact that I will have to answer to myself regarding the results at the year end, will spur me on more to take as many opportunities as I can!🥴😊

Dave

5 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Well, the ones I mentioned in my latest post are Tessa the TSA120, Dizzy the FC100 DZ and Gemma the FOA60Q (she’s a little gem).

..and tonight you decided to give Dizzy a spin?🙃

Dave

Sorry to laugh, Mike, but it's clear here right now, which means that it's (unbelievably) the 6th night of 9 since 1st January that observing has been possible!!

"Go figure!!" , as you guys say in the States😊

Dave

38 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Tak FC100 DZ + AZ100 tonight

Looking good Jeremy...how are the views of that conifer/shrub thingy it's pointing at??

Dave

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Good idea, Dave. I keep and Excel s/sheet. It’s gratifying to look back at the end of the year to see the result (if you can handle it, of course 😊)

Thanks Jeremy..

Yes, I might get around to putting the results onto excel, especially good for year on year comparisons, trend analysis etc..

Only potential problem is that I don't use our laptop much these days...it doesn't have a handle so I'm always worried I might drop it!🥴😂

Dave

Lovely, inspiring report..and with just 60mm!!

Thanks for sharing👍😊

Dave

Well before the end of 2021 I had decided to start keeping a simple log of clear nights at my location from Jan 1st 2022.

Nothing too complicated, as I'm keeping the record on our kitchen calendar so it's easy to do it each day..I know a lot of SGLers keep quite detailed records of both numbers of sessions and contents of the sessions, but for now I just want to keep a simple record as to how many nights each month offer clear skies.

So, on the calendar, I'm marking a simple "Clear" if it's clear, a blank if cloudy, and if it is/was clear, an "O" or "X" to show if I observed ("O"), or not ("X").

The latter is to help me check, on how many clear nights when I could have observed, I actually did observe..

Anyway, with 1 week of 2022 gone already, I have (almost unbelievably!) recorded 4 clear nights in the past 7!! And also almost unbelievably, I've not been able to observe on a single one of those clear nights due to residual illness from the Christmas period. Thankfully I'm now improving daily, but I have agreed with my wife that I would wait until the beginning of next week until getting out under the stars...just to be on the safe side.

I have to admit that the black humour of this situation is rather amusing..I genuinely cannot recall a 1 week period in winter in which we had 4 very clear nights in the past 5 years of living in Lincolnshire..

And of course, I'm now taking bets on the chances of next week offering 4 clear nights too....500-1, anyone??😂

Clear skies!!

Dave

Lovely and uplifting report, Nicola, your enthusiasm is infectious!😊.

I too have Bortle 4 skies and the last 3 nights -yes, Three nights!! - have been clear. Sadly I've not yet got out due to having had chest infection/flu like symptoms over Christmas and New Year, but I'm on the mend now and very much hope to be outside in the next week or less, weather permitting..

In the meantime, reports such as yours are very motivational, so thank you!

Dave

45 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

The cover of that book still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Wonderful!

I never saw that book (cut my teeth on Patrick Moore's Observers Book of Astronomy), but what an evocative cover illustration!👍..

..and the more poignant as back in those days you could often see skies like that even from many towns.

Dave

Prinz 550 (Dixon's Photographic) 60mm F15 refractor with proper equatorial mount. Made in Japan by Kenko ( later Prinz 500s were much cheaper built with some plastic parts, such as the focuser wheels. They also had Circle T optics, which were quite good, but not IMHO as good as the Kenko lens set). All metal construction in a proprietary grey paint finish which I found very cool at age 15!

This scope cost £39.95 in c Christmas 1970. (That was over a week's wages for my dad at that time). My parents paid £20 deposit for my Christmas present, and I paid the remainder over 9 months from my Saturday job.

This scope was a brilliant little performer with great optics..it was limited by the then standard 0.965" eyepieces with narrow fov, but even so it showed me wonderful views of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon, M42 and Pleiades. Mizar and it's system has always been a favourite if mine to this day, all due to the mesmerizing views of it I saw with the Prinz 550.

My dad used to come out on a winters evening while I was transfixed by Orion, and would being me hot chocolate and a hot water bottle to warm me up😊 .

Treasured memories.

The pics below are not the original scope but are an identical model in all details..

Dave

Cracking report Stu, as Malcolm said, it's a great tonic when unable to observe oneself, to read of others' good sessions. Your FC76 sounds like a cracker!👍

Dave

Fascinating and uplifting stuff..human beings at their best, working across nations, collaboratively and so calm..

That's the value of all those months and years of practice, practice and more practice..then great execution👍.

Dave

1 hour ago, JDF said:

Thanks for the advice folks, I will try again, hopefully tonight. For some reason I had completely forgot that I had split Mizar last year with no bother at all.

I think that observing doubles is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our hobby..and there are literally thousands of them to search out and enjoy!

Observing doubles can also be one of the most challenging activities, especially here in UK conditions..

Although I'm lucky enough to own and use a fine apo refractor nowadays, I still believe that a really decent long, traditional achromatic refractor or a high quality, fully cooled Maksutov is hard to beat in splitting quite close double stars relatively easily, in different seeing conditions.

These scopes are often available on the used market for very reasonable prices (good Maks are a bit less common), and they represent great value for money.. the achromats listed below are often available for between c £100-£300 for a good used OTA. The Maks a bit higher in price, maybe £300-500, and a bit less common.

They do need a decent mount due to their length, the ones mentioned below all work well on a Vixen GP or GP/DX class mount.

Achromat examples:

- Towa/Topic/Meade 339 80mm F15/F16

- Prinz 660 (76mm F15), Prinz 550 (60mm F15)

- Vixen Pulsar F13 102mm

- Lyra Optics/ Altair Astro 102mm F11

- Swift 331 77mm F13

- Swift 339 60mm F13

- Tal 100 RS F10

- Vixen SP102 102mm F10

Maksutov examples: ( note: all the Maks I have used benefitted significantly from having a decent length dewshield fitted to reduce/prevent dewing up of the corrector plate (front glass plate)).

- Skymax 127/150/180mm (note that these are slightly stopped down, so their "clear aperture" is slightly less than claimed - still very good doubles scopes though, when properly cooled down. 

- Intes MK66/MK67: 150mm full aperture F10, made in Russia, with superb optics

- Ylena (Lomo) 150mm F14: as above, exquisite optics rivalling a good apo on still, clear nights.

If you search through the scope forums here on SGL, you will find a wealth of reviews, discussions and opinions on most of the above scopes 👍..some good winter fireside reading!😊

Dave

14 minutes ago, Munier said:

Agree! I am in Lincoln and I was amazed at how clear and dark the sky was. I am a beginner but thought the last night was the best since I started looking for clear sky a year back!

Agreed!

I'm in the southern end of the Lincs Wolds and the skies were fabulous, almost unbelievably so..although I didn't get out for health reasons, it's was just great to read some of the reports coming in "live" in the observing forum...

Dave

It's an absolutely beautiful clear night here, best for literally months!

But it's also Brrrraassic cold too! Having had a civilised chat with my wife, I've very reluctantly agreed to be sensible after enduring two weeks of flu like misery over Christmas and New Year, and so I'm staying in😝🥴..

I know it's the sensible thing to do, as I still am very "chesty", but I can't deny it really hurts to pass up a night like tonight..if only we could bank nights like this! I can hear Trinity the Tak and my new Pentax XW30 calling to me...

I sense the enthusiasm of all you who are already outside, and I really hope you are having the conditions we have here tonight..

So, wrap up really well and let us who won't be out tonight have your highlights and reports please👍.

Dave

15 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Currently covid positive so admiring this which turned up a few days ago instead of being outside. Looks splendid, can’t wait to give this a go with the 76DCU. January for once could be bearable!

 

Great eyepiece! I owned a 7 and a 10mm a few years ago, wonderful optics, they just "get out of the way" and let you "see stuff". They barlow very well too👍.

Dave

Great picture, and really brings perspective to the size of our Local Group's largest galaxy 👍.

Lovely view of the nearby companions too. Thanks for sharing

Dave